San Francisco school children could soon have more opportunities to learn a language other than English in elementary school under a pilot program approved Tuesday night.

A resolution approved unanimously by the San Francisco Unified School District board Tuesday asked the district to prepare a pilot program offering Mandarin language instruction at elementary schools that feed into middle schools that offer Mandarin.

Unlike existing immersion programs, that offer all daily instruction in the target language, this program would offer daily classes in the language in addition to normal daily classes conducted in English, according to the district.

If it is found to be feasible, the pilot program would be implemented by the 2018-2019 school year, with other languages to follow district-wide if it is considered a success. Read more